Packt+ | Advance your knowledge in tech

You're reading from Android Studio 4.1 Development Essentials – Java Edition

Product type Book

Published in May 2021

Publisher Packt

ISBN-13 9781801815161

Pages 810 pages

Edition 1st Edition

Languages

Concepts

Android Development

Author (1):

Neil Smyth

Table of Contents (88) Chapters

1. Introduction

2. Setting up an Android Studio Development Environment

3. Creating an Example Android App in Android Studio

4. Creating an Android Virtual Device (AVD) in Android Studio

5. Using and Configuring the Android Studio AVD Emulator

6. A Tour of the Android Studio User Interface

7. Testing Android Studio Apps on a Physical Android Device

8. The Basics of the Android Studio Code Editor

9. An Overview of the Android Architecture

10. The Anatomy of an Android Application

11. An Overview of Android View Binding

12. Understanding Android Application and Activity Lifecycles

13. Handling Android Activity State Changes

14. Android Activity State Changes by Example

15. Saving and Restoring the State of an Android Activity

16. Understanding Android Views, View Groups and Layouts

17. A Guide to the Android Studio Layout Editor Tool

18. A Guide to the Android ConstraintLayout

19. A Guide to using ConstraintLayout in Android Studio

20. Working with ConstraintLayout Chains and Ratios in Android Studio

21. An Android Studio Layout Editor ConstraintLayout Tutorial

22. Manual XML Layout Design in Android Studio

23. Managing Constraints using Constraint Sets

24. An Android ConstraintSet Tutorial

25. A Guide to using Apply Changes in Android Studio

26. An Overview and Example of Android Event Handling

27. Android Touch and Multi-touch Event Handling

28. Detecting Common Gestures using the Android Gesture Detector Class

29. Implementing Custom Gesture and Pinch Recognition on Android

30. An Introduction to Android Fragments

31. Using Fragments in Android Studio - An Example

32. Modern Android App Architecture with Jetpack

33. An Android Jetpack ViewModel Tutorial

34. An Android Jetpack LiveData Tutorial

35. An Overview of Android Jetpack Data Binding

36. An Android Jetpack Data Binding Tutorial

37. An Android ViewModel Saved State Tutorial

38. Working with Android Lifecycle-Aware Components

39. An Android Jetpack Lifecycle Awareness Tutorial

40. An Overview of the Navigation Architecture Component

41. An Android Jetpack Navigation Component Tutorial

42. Creating and Managing Overflow Menus on Android

43. An Introduction to MotionLayout

44. An Android MotionLayout Editor Tutorial

45. A MotionLayout KeyCycle Tutorial

46. Working with the Floating Action Button and Snackbar

47. Creating a Tabbed Interface using the TabLayout Component

48. Working with the RecyclerView and CardView Widgets

49. An Android RecyclerView and CardView Tutorial

50. A Layout Editor Sample Data Tutorial

51. Working with the AppBar and Collapsing Toolbar Layouts

52. An Android Studio Master/Detail Flow Tutorial

53. An Overview of Android Intents

54. Android Explicit Intents – A Worked Example

55. Android Implicit Intents – A Worked Example

56. Android Broadcast Intents and Broadcast Receivers

57. A Basic Overview of Threads and AsyncTasks

58. An Overview of Android Started and Bound Services

59. Implementing an Android Started Service – A Worked Example

60. Android Local Bound Services – A Worked Example

61. Android Remote Bound Services – A Worked Example

62. An Android Notifications Tutorial

63. An Android Direct Reply Notification Tutorial

64. Foldable Devices and Multi-Window Support

65. An Overview of Android SQLite Databases

66. The Android Room Persistence Library

67. An Android TableLayout and TableRow Tutorial

68. An Android Room Database and Repository Tutorial

69. Accessing Cloud Storage using the Android Storage Access Framework

70. An Android Storage Access Framework Example

71. Video Playback on Android using the VideoView and MediaController Classes

72. Android Picture-in-Picture Mode

73. An Android Picture-in-Picture Tutorial

74. Making Runtime Permission Requests in Android

75. Android Audio Recording and Playback using MediaPlayer and MediaRecorder

76. Working with the Google Maps Android API in Android Studio

77. Printing with the Android Printing Framework

78. An Android HTML and Web Content Printing Example

79. A Guide to Android Custom Document Printing

80. An Introduction to Android App Links

81. An Android Studio App Links Tutorial

82. A Guide to the Android Studio Profiler

83. An Android Biometric Authentication Tutorial

84. Creating, Testing and Uploading an Android App Bundle

85. An Overview of Android Dynamic Feature Modules

86. An Android Studio Dynamic Feature Tutorial

87. An Overview of Gradle in Android Studio

Index

6. A Tour of the Android Studio User Interface

While it is tempting to plunge into running the example application created in the previous chapter, doing so involves using aspects of the Android Studio user interface which are best described in advance.

Android Studio is a powerful and feature rich development environment that is, to a large extent, intuitive to use. That being said, taking the time now to gain familiarity with the layout and organization of the Android Studio user interface will considerably shorten the learning curve in later chapters of the book. With this in mind, this chapter will provide an initial overview of the various areas and components that make up the Android Studio environment.

6.1 The Welcome Screen

The welcome screen (Figure 6-1) is displayed any time that Android Studio is running with no projects currently open (open projects can be closed at any time by selecting the File -> Close Project menu option). If Android Studio was previously exited while a project was still open, the tool will by-pass the welcome screen next time it is launched, automatically opening the previously active project.

Figure 6-1

In addition to a list of recent projects, the Quick Start menu provides a range of options for performing tasks such as opening, creating and importing projects along with access to projects currently under version control. In addition, the Configure menu at the bottom of the window provides access to the SDK Manager along with a vast array of settings and configuration options. A review of these options will quickly reveal that there is almost no aspect of Android Studio that cannot be configured and tailored to your specific needs.

The...

6.2 The Main Window

When a new project is created, or an existing one opened, the Android Studio main window will appear. When multiple projects are open simultaneously, each will be assigned its own main window. The precise configuration of the window will vary depending on which tools and panels were displayed the last time the project was open, but will typically resemble that of Figure 6-2.

Figure 6-2

The various elements of the main window can be summarized as follows:

A – Menu Bar – Contains a range of menus for performing tasks within the Android Studio environment.

B – Toolbar – A selection of shortcuts to frequently performed actions. The toolbar buttons provide quicker access to a select group of menu bar actions. The toolbar can be customized by right-clicking on the bar and selecting the Customize Menus and Toolbars… menu option. If the toolbar is not visible, it can be displayed using the View -> Appearance -> Toolbar...

6.3 The Tool Windows

In addition to the project view tool window, Android Studio also includes a number of other windows which, when enabled, are displayed along the bottom and sides of the main window. The tool window quick access menu can be accessed by hovering the mouse pointer over the button located in the far left-hand corner of the status bar (Figure 6-4) without clicking the mouse button.

Figure 6-4

Selecting an item from the quick access menu will cause the corresponding tool window to appear within the main window.

Alternatively, a set of tool window bars can be displayed by clicking on the quick access menu icon in the status bar. These bars appear along the left, right and bottom edges of the main window (as indicated by the arrows in Figure 6-5) and contain buttons for showing and hiding each of the tool windows. When the tool window bars are displayed, a second click on the button in the status bar will hide them.

Figure 6-5

Clicking on a button...

6.4 Android Studio Keyboard Shortcuts

Android Studio includes an abundance of keyboard shortcuts designed to save time when performing common tasks. A full keyboard shortcut keymap listing can be viewed and printed from within the Android Studio project window by selecting the Help -> Keymap Reference menu option. You may also list and modify the keyboard shortcuts by selecting the File -> Settings... menu option (Android Studio -> Preferences... on macOS) and clicking on the Keymap entry as shown in Figure 6-7 below:

Figure 6-7

6.5 Switcher and Recent Files Navigation

Another useful mechanism for navigating within the Android Studio main window involves the use of the Switcher. Accessed via the Ctrl-Tab keyboard shortcut, the switcher appears as a panel listing both the tool windows and currently open files (Figure 6-8).

Figure 6-8

Once displayed, the switcher will remain visible for as long as the Ctrl key remains depressed. Repeatedly tapping the Tab key while holding down the Ctrl key will cycle through the various selection options, while releasing the Ctrl key causes the currently highlighted item to be selected and displayed within the main window.

In addition to the switcher, navigation to recently opened files is provided by the Recent Files panel (Figure 6-9). This can be accessed using the Ctrl-E keyboard shortcut (Cmd-E on macOS). Once displayed, either the mouse pointer can be used to select an option or, alternatively, the keyboard arrow keys used to scroll through the file name...

6.6 Changing the Android Studio Theme

The overall theme of the Android Studio environment may be changed either from the welcome screen using the Configure -> Settings option, or via the File -> Settings… menu option (Android Studio -> Preferences… on macOS) of the main window.

Once the settings dialog is displayed, select the Appearance & Behavior option followed by Appearance in the left-hand panel and then change the setting of the Theme menu before clicking on the Apply button. The themes available will depend on the platform but usually include options such as Light, IntelliJ, Windows, High Contrast and Darcula. Figure 6-10 shows an example of the main window with the Darcula theme selected:

Figure 6-10

6.7 Summary

The primary elements of the Android Studio environment consist of the welcome screen and main window. Each open project is assigned its own main window which, in turn, consists of a menu bar, toolbar, editing and design area, status bar and a collection of tool windows. Tool windows appear on the sides and bottom edges of the main window and can be accessed either using the quick access menu located in the status bar, or via the optional tool window bars.

There are very few actions within Android Studio which cannot be triggered via a keyboard shortcut. A keymap of default keyboard shortcuts can be accessed at any time from within the Android Studio main window.